Pune : A personal accident insurance programme called “Kisan Raksha Kavach” for farmers has been introduced for farmers on the AgroStar App, India’s largest digital farmer network, and Agri-input platform. More than 50 lakh farmers in the country engage with AgroStar for farm advisory and access to good quality and original agricultural products.
AgroStar has been working on a mission of ‘Helping Farmers Win’ to bring about a positive change in the lives of farmers. After several interactions with farmers and understanding a very important need, the Kisan Raksha Kavach – a personal accidental group insurance programme has been introduced on the AgroStar App to provide financial protection to the farmers against uncertainties of accidental death and disability resulting from an accident. Subject to the terms of the programme, a farmer who purchases agri inputs from the AgroStar App will get a benefit of personal accident insurance cover of Rs. 2 lakh free of cost.
This group insurance programme is launched in a collaboration with Care Health Insurance and GramCover, where Care Health Insurance is the insurer of this group insurance policy and GramCover is digitally facilitating the process. Several farmers on the AgroStar App have started availing of the benefits of the programme, which has generated a great deal of interest among farmers. In fact, within a month of launching, more than ten thousand farmers have already been covered under this programme.
Shardul Sheth, Chief Executive Officer, AgroStar said, “Along with our existing value propositions, the Kisan Raksha Kavach programme has been introduced on the AgroStar App to provide personal security to our farmers, that will safeguard them and secure their families. We are confident that this programme will add great value to the lives of our farmers and further cement our trust and relationship with them.”
India is significantly under-insured with an insurance penetration of only 3.7%. The challenge for Rural India is steeper – 60% of the gross cropped area is not insured, 90% of the livestock is not insured, ~ 70% of 2W renewals are not completed and health, as well as mortality covers (Personal Accident and Life), are also not so prevalent, despite Government and Regulatory intervention.
Dhyanesh Bhatt, Co-Founder & Group CEO, Gramcover said, “The embedded insurance programme introduced on the AgroStar app gains significance since it provides a fixed benefit to the farmer as a Value Added Service (VAS) proposition in case of the untoward event of accidental death or disability. The company wants to support the farming community, by creating contextualized covers and offering them in a seamless manner by leveraging technology at the time of customer onboarding as well as claims settlement.”
Founded by Sitanshu Sheth and Shardul Sheth in the year 2013, AgroStar leverages data and technology to help farmers with access to good quality agri-inputs, and bridge the knowledge gap that exists in traditional farming practices. It has over 1,000 offline touchpoints across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. AgroStar plans to have 5,000 such touchpoints over the next few years.